Dear Friends of Golden Sunbeams
In just 77 days, Stuttgart architecture students Merle Hölter, Isabelle Oswald and Tamara Speil built the Lekker Bekkies kindergarten in the township of Rusthof near Strand in the 2018/2019 winter semester.
They had previously planned a new kitchen for Lekker Bekkies in an existing building as part of specialisted work and implemented it on site in March 2018. You can read the whole story here.
Under the title BauRAUM Africa, they planned a new kindergarten building, demolished the old and inadequately equipped building in March 2019, bought the material, negotiated with suppliers, instructed the workers and accompanied all construction phases on site, lent a hand themselves and and did the brickwork – all that it takes to construct such a building.
The three of them even collected the necessary funds to finance the construction – a truly passionate project for the three Stuttgart students.
In the new building, two bright rooms were created, which could be opened up into a very large room through a practical sliding door. The three paid attention to creating plenty of storage space and, if possible, only using sustainable materials. So they decided on a wooden floor.
Unfortunately, after about five years, the wooden floor is completely “run-down”, worn out and no longer suitable to walk on. Over the years it gave in more and more to the heavy use and in the end it had simply worn through to the foundation and was therefore a danger to the children.
As part of a site visit with Florentia, the principal of the kindergarten, and our construction manager Dennis, we decided to repair the floor quickly. No sooner said than done: the old wooden floor was removed, a new foundation was poured and a new section was laid on top.
Instead of a wooden floor, this time we decided on large, very beautiful light-coloured tiles that are more durable, easier to clean and therefore much more hygienic.
It took less than two weeks from our meeting to the finished floor – that’s how quickly and efficiently all the contractors worked together whilst the kindergarten was in operation!
We, Florentia with her entire team, the children and our workers are, once more, happy with the good result and hope that Merle, Isabelle and Tamara are also satisfied with our repair alternative.
Today we send you our warm greetings from a very hot Cape Town.
With best wishes
Britta & Bernd